“The Grove of Imagination” Re-reading Ibn ‘Arabī’s Barzakh as a Spiritual Ecology
Main Article Content
Keywords
Ibn ʿArabī, barzakh, nabātī, spiritual ecology, imaginal world (ʿālam al-mithāl), vegetal philosophy, spiritual geography, Sufism, environmental spirituality, human perfection (kamāl)
Abstract
This paper re-examines Ibn ʿArabī’s concept of the barzakh through the lens of spiritual ecology, arguing that it functions not only as an eschatological or metaphysical intermediary but as a dynamic, growth-oriented realm integral to the soul’s development. Moving beyond previous structural and ontological readings, the paper highlights the barzakh as an active, vegetal-like ecosystem where the human being—understood as a “plant-like” entity (nabātī)—matures through embodied, experiential engagement with the natural world. Drawing on Ibn ʿArabī’s descriptions of the “Vast Earth” (ard al-ḥaqīqa) and the “Pledge of the Plants,” the analysis reveals how the barzakh serves as a spiritual geography that integrates mineral, vegetal, and animal dimensions into the path of human perfection. By synthesizing insights from contemporary Islamic scholarship and vegetal philosophy, the paper presents the barzakh as a foundational, indigenous framework for an Islamic ecological spirituality—one that decenters anthropocentrism and affirms the sacred interconnectivity of all beings in the journey toward divine proximity.
References
Endnotes
1 I would like to thank Professors James Morris and John Walbridge for their comments
and useful suggestions; I am also grateful to Professor Carl Pearson for his
helpful comments on different versions of this article.
2 “He has set free the two seas, so that they meet/ between them a barrier (barzakh)
neither of them crosses.” The meaning of the “two seas” here is usually interpreted
in terms of verse 25:53: “He it is Who set free the two seas: one sweet and fresh; the
other salty and bitter. And He placed between them a barrier (barzakh) forbidding
(their mixing).” Before Ibn ʿArabī, earlier Sufi commentators and others had often
connected these two waters to symbols of the material and the spiritual realms of
existence.
3 Gholamhossein Ebrahim Dinani, “Barzakh,” in Encyclopaedia Islamica, trans. Kevin
Brown (Brill, 2021).
4 Lane, Lexicon, “barzakh,”, https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/02_b/070_brzx.
html. The first definition here is alluding to a famous hadith
5 The notion of barzakh as liminality can be a point of departure. Liminality is derived
from a Latin word, limens, means ‘threshold.’ It developed to be translated as a
house, dwelling, abode and the barrier in a racecourse. See Charlton T. Lewis,
Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, “Limen,” https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
text?doc=limen&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059.
6 George Archer, A Place Between Two Places: The Qur’anic Barzakh (Gorgias Press,
2017), 2.
7 Salman H. Bashier, Ibn Al-‘Arabi’s Barzakh: The Concept of Limit and the Relationship
between God and the World (SUNY Press, 2004), 12.
8 Sa’diyya Shaikh, “Embracing the Barzakh: Knowledge, Being and Ethics 1,” Journal
for Islamic Studies 39, no. 1 (2021): 28–48.
9 Miriam Cooke, “The Barzakh of Ecstacy,” Üsküdar Üniversitesi Tasavvuf Araştırmaları
Enstitüsü Dergisi 1, no. 2 (2022): 17–28.
10 Michael Mardar et. al., Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (Columbia
University Press, 2013).
11 Titus Burckhardt, “Concerning the Barzakh,” in Mirror of the Intellect, ed. William
Stoddart (SUNY Press, 1987),193-99.
12 Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, vol. 2 of 4 volumes. Reprint of
Bulaq edition (Beirut: Dar Sadr, 1968), Ch. 8 of the Futūḥāt on the “Reality of the
Vast Earth.”
13 FM 3, Ch, 135-140.
14 Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabī (Princeton University
Press, 1969).
15 James W. Morris, “Ibn ‘Arabī’s Rhetoric of Realisation: Keys to Reading and
‘Translating’ the Meccan Illuminations,” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society
33 (2003), 54–98. See also Annabel Keeler, “Wisdom in Controversy: Paradox and
the Paradoxical in Sayings of Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī (d. 234/848 or 261/875),” Journal
of Sufi Studies 7, nos. 1–2 (2018): 1–26.
16 For the meaning of barzakh in the writing of Suhrawardī, one of Ibn ‘Arabī’s immediate
philosophical and spiritual predecessors, see Malihe Karbassian, “The Meaning
and Etymology of Barzakh in Illuminationist Philosophy,” in Illuminationist Texts
and Textual Studies, ed. Ali Gheissari, et al. (Brill, 2018), 86-95.
17 As for this definition of barzakh as the first level of existence, see Ibn ʻArabī, FM 2,
5.
18 See Wilson (transl.), The Masnavi, Vol. 2, Book II (Probsthain & Co, 1910), note 20.
19 FM 2, 46.
20 FM 3, 232. 24
21 Mona Siddiqui, “Imagination and the Ethics of Religious Narratives,” in Religious
Imaginations: How Narratives of Faith Are Shaping Today’s World, ed. James Walter
(Gingko Library, 2018), 37.
22 Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabī, 218.
23 “We will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it
becomes clear to them that He is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is a
Witness over all things?”
24 “[He is] Lord of the two sunrises and Lord of the two sunsets”.
25 “He is the Lord of the east and the west. There is no god worthy of worship except
Him, so take Him alone as a Trustee.”
26 “He is the Lord of the east and west, and everything in between, if only you had
any sense.”
27 “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. His light is like a niche in which
there is a lamp, the lamp is in a crystal, the crystal is like a shining star, lit from the
oil of a blessed olive tree, located neither to the east nor the west, whose oil would
almost glow, even without being touched by fire. Light upon light! Allah guides
whomever He wills to His Light. And Allah sets forth parables for humanity. For
Allah has perfect knowledge of all things.”
28 FM 2, Ch. 8 “on the Inner Knowing of the Reality of the ‘Vast Earth’ that was Created
From the Remnants of Adam’s Clay.”
29 Corbin, Creative Imagination, 135.
30 Notably, this reference to their conversation (about experiences not otherwise mentioned
in surviving stories of this famous early Egyptian Sufi teacher) suggests
something that Ibn ʿArabī might have learned in another personal encounter with
Dhu’l Nūn in the barzakh of the afterlife, since he often mentions in multiple works
his personal discussions with a number of well-known (but long-deceased) spiritual
figures in the next world. Dhū’l Nūn’s dates are 796-859 CE, or almost four centuries
before Ibn ʿArabī.
31 FM 4, 127.
32 FM 2, 128.7-11.
33 Al-ʿulamā’ bi’llāh: this is one of Ibn ʿArabī’s favorite terms for designating the
highest spiritual ranks of the “true spiritual knowers,” the ʿārifūn.
34 FM 1, 127 (ch. 8) and following.
35 See James Winston Morris, “Life Is But a Dream”: Creation as Divine Cinema and
the Shadow-Theater of Existence, From Plato to Ibn ‘Arabī,” El Azufre Rojo: Revista
de Estudios Sobre Ibn ‘Arabī 2 (n.d.): 30–48.
36 FM 1, 128 (beginning line 11) to 129.
37 FM 1, 127. 20-23.
38 Sheikh, “Embracing the Barzakh,” 28.
39 Nazeer El-Azma, “Some Notes on the Impact of the Story of the Mi’raj on Sufi
Literature,” The Muslim World 63, no. 2 (1973): 93–104:94.
40 I use Herlihy’s terminology of “soul instinct,” which is an inner eye of the heart
accessing key existential and spiritual matters. See John Herlihy, Borderlands of the
Spirit: Reflections on a Sacred Science of Mind (World Wisdom, 2005). 74-75.
41 The most personal and detailed account of Ibn ‘Arabī’s own spiritual journey in its
earliest form is considered to be his highly symbolic account in his youthful book
Kitāb al-Isrā’ ilā al-Maqām al-Asrā’ (“The Book of the Night-Journey to the Farthest
Station”).
42 See the opening sections of James Winston Morris, “The Spiritual Ascension: Ibn
ʿArabī and the Miʿrāj Part I,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 107, no. 4
(1987): 629–52.
43 Frederick S. Colby, “The Subtleties of the Ascension: Al-Sulamī on the Mi’rāj of the
Prophet Muhammad,” Studia Islamica, no. 94 (2002): 167–83.
44 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrine (Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1964), 72. Ibn ‘Arabī echoes earlier philosophers
and Sufis, such as Ikhwān al-Safā’, regarding the cosmic hierarchy of existents and
the special position of plants. In that context, “al-nabāt” refers to that dimension
of the world (or “the Kingdom, al-mulk”) that is considered to be the source of the
potential for growth and development.
45 FM 3, 139, lines 11-14. This and the other passages below are taken from the FM,
chapter 336.
46 The specific verse alluded to here is at 71:17; but it presupposes the larger context
of verses 71:14-20, part of Noah’s address to his people.
47 See the translation of this key passage from the end of this Faṣṣ that is included at
the end of this section below, where Ibn ‘Arabī includes his own experience of this
state of pure “animality.”
48 FM 2, 586. Ch. 267, “On inner knowing of the soul....”
49 FM 3, 137. ch. 366.
50 J.H Philpot, The Sacred Tree, or the Tree in Religion and Myth (NY, Dover Publications,
2004).
51 Noble Ross Reat, “The Tree Symbol in Islam,” http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.
com/ public/articles/the_tree_symbol_in_islam-by_noble_ross_reat.
aspx#_ftn58.
52 Here one might also note that one of the most popular and widely read early
summaries of Ibn ʿArabī’s central metaphysical teachings was entitled the “Tree of
Existence” (Shajarat al-Kawn).
53 For example, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Life and Thought (ABC International
Group, Inc., 2001), 200-206.
54 A.M. Schwencke, Globalized Eco-Islam A Survey of Global Islamic Environmentalism
(Draft Version) (Leiden Institute for Religious Studies (LIRS), Leiden University,
2012),11.
55 In Goethe’s natural philosophy, the adaptability of the transplanted shoot of a plant,
the fact that a broken-off part can reattach itself, and from that point of adaptation
take up further stages of metamorphosis: “[A] new rhizome may form in the heart
of a tree, the hollow of a root, the crook of a branch.” Cited in Elaine P Miller, The
Vegetative Soul: From Philosophy of Nature to Subjectivity in the Feminine (SUNY
Press, 2002), 186.
56 See an overview of this terminology in Atif Khalil, “Humility in Islamic Contemplative
Ethics,” Journal of Islamic Ethics (Leiden, The Netherlands) 4, nos. 1–2 (2020): 223–52.
57 This lifecycle of paddy rice is known in Southeast Asian philosophy as Ilmu Padi, or
“the “knowing of the paddy-plant.” It refers to a person’s maturity, self-realization,
and spiritual attainments, symbolized by the growing nature and ripening of the
paddy plant. In Indonesian, a proverb says “seperti padi, semakin berisi, semakin
merunduk”. Which translates to: “be like the rice stalk: as it is laden with ripening
grains, it bows down.”
58 In full, that title of chapter 366 is: “Concerning inner knowing of the waystation
(manzil) of the plants’ pledging allegiance to that spiritual Pole (Quṭb) who is the
‘Master of the Moment’ in every age, and this is from the Presence of Muhammad.”
This chapter within the larger Futūḥāt Section concerning the Spiritual Waystations
(faṣl al-manāzil) corresponds to Sura 48 (al-Fatḥ), where verses 10 and 18 both refer
to the famous “swearing allegiance” (mubāyaʿa) to Muhammad by his followers
at Hudaybiyya, “underneath the Tree,” as the Qur’an describes that key event. The closing verse 48:29 refers specifically to the distinctive signs of the people of true faith, concluding with the spiritual plant imagery that runs through most of this chapter: “That is their likeness in the Torah and their likeness in the Gospel—like the sown seed that brings forth its shoot, and strengthens it; then it becomes strong, so it rises up on its stalk, pleasing the sowers....”
59 Ibn ʻArabī, The Alchemy of Human Happiness, trans. Stephen Hirtenstein (Anqa Publishing, 2017), 58-59, footnote 48. The text translated and annotated in that volume is of FM, Ch.167.
60 Alchemy, 56.
61 FM II, 295.
62 This sense of the sh-j-r Arabic root as referring to disagreement and opposing qualities is emphasized in a number of Qur’anic verses, especially referring to the forbidden Tree in Eden: “Don’t you two (Adam and Eve) approach this tree, lest you become among the wrongdoers!” (2:35).
63 FM 3, 137.
64 FM 3, 137. Line 26
65 FM 3, 137. Line 25-28.
66 Hugh Talat Halman, Where Two Seas Meet: The Qur’anic Story of al-Khidr and Moses in Sufi Commentaries as a Model of Spiritual Guidance (Fons Vitae, 2013).
67 Sometimes a shaykh knows how to reconstitute a student’s situation by imaginatively transforming an apparently strictly legal solution into a more personal, negotiated solution. For an example of this, see Andi Herawati and Andi Rachmawati Syarif, “Religion and Creative Imagination: Religious Representation in I.B. Singer’s In My Father’s Court and The Shadow-Theater (Wayang) In Indonesia,” Prajñā Vihāra 20, no. 2 (2019): 37.
68 FM 3, 140 and following.
69 FḤ, 186-187. The selections quoted below here are from the very end of the Fass of Ilyās (Idris). At the beginning of this same chapter (pp. 181-182), Ibn ʿArabī already carefully outlines the metaphysical importance of this complete realization of both the purely intelligible sources of manifest existence, together with the realized awareness in this material world of the essential role of human “imaginations” (awhām, here used in the sense of khayāl) in order to fully perceive the significance of all those earthly forms of the divine creation.
70 The allusion is to verses 19:56-57, “…We raised him [Idrīs] up to a High Station.”
71 This later sending back to earth of Idrīs, who was understood first as an early prophet between Adam and Noah, was often identified with the later prophetic figure called Ilyās/Elias (6:85; 37:123-13). Hence Ibn ʿArabī opens this chapter 22 by saying: “Ilyās is Idrīs.”
1 I would like to thank Professors James Morris and John Walbridge for their comments
and useful suggestions; I am also grateful to Professor Carl Pearson for his
helpful comments on different versions of this article.
2 “He has set free the two seas, so that they meet/ between them a barrier (barzakh)
neither of them crosses.” The meaning of the “two seas” here is usually interpreted
in terms of verse 25:53: “He it is Who set free the two seas: one sweet and fresh; the
other salty and bitter. And He placed between them a barrier (barzakh) forbidding
(their mixing).” Before Ibn ʿArabī, earlier Sufi commentators and others had often
connected these two waters to symbols of the material and the spiritual realms of
existence.
3 Gholamhossein Ebrahim Dinani, “Barzakh,” in Encyclopaedia Islamica, trans. Kevin
Brown (Brill, 2021).
4 Lane, Lexicon, “barzakh,”, https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/02_b/070_brzx.
html. The first definition here is alluding to a famous hadith
5 The notion of barzakh as liminality can be a point of departure. Liminality is derived
from a Latin word, limens, means ‘threshold.’ It developed to be translated as a
house, dwelling, abode and the barrier in a racecourse. See Charlton T. Lewis,
Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, “Limen,” https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
text?doc=limen&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059.
6 George Archer, A Place Between Two Places: The Qur’anic Barzakh (Gorgias Press,
2017), 2.
7 Salman H. Bashier, Ibn Al-‘Arabi’s Barzakh: The Concept of Limit and the Relationship
between God and the World (SUNY Press, 2004), 12.
8 Sa’diyya Shaikh, “Embracing the Barzakh: Knowledge, Being and Ethics 1,” Journal
for Islamic Studies 39, no. 1 (2021): 28–48.
9 Miriam Cooke, “The Barzakh of Ecstacy,” Üsküdar Üniversitesi Tasavvuf Araştırmaları
Enstitüsü Dergisi 1, no. 2 (2022): 17–28.
10 Michael Mardar et. al., Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (Columbia
University Press, 2013).
11 Titus Burckhardt, “Concerning the Barzakh,” in Mirror of the Intellect, ed. William
Stoddart (SUNY Press, 1987),193-99.
12 Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, vol. 2 of 4 volumes. Reprint of
Bulaq edition (Beirut: Dar Sadr, 1968), Ch. 8 of the Futūḥāt on the “Reality of the
Vast Earth.”
13 FM 3, Ch, 135-140.
14 Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabī (Princeton University
Press, 1969).
15 James W. Morris, “Ibn ‘Arabī’s Rhetoric of Realisation: Keys to Reading and
‘Translating’ the Meccan Illuminations,” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society
33 (2003), 54–98. See also Annabel Keeler, “Wisdom in Controversy: Paradox and
the Paradoxical in Sayings of Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī (d. 234/848 or 261/875),” Journal
of Sufi Studies 7, nos. 1–2 (2018): 1–26.
16 For the meaning of barzakh in the writing of Suhrawardī, one of Ibn ‘Arabī’s immediate
philosophical and spiritual predecessors, see Malihe Karbassian, “The Meaning
and Etymology of Barzakh in Illuminationist Philosophy,” in Illuminationist Texts
and Textual Studies, ed. Ali Gheissari, et al. (Brill, 2018), 86-95.
17 As for this definition of barzakh as the first level of existence, see Ibn ʻArabī, FM 2,
5.
18 See Wilson (transl.), The Masnavi, Vol. 2, Book II (Probsthain & Co, 1910), note 20.
19 FM 2, 46.
20 FM 3, 232. 24
21 Mona Siddiqui, “Imagination and the Ethics of Religious Narratives,” in Religious
Imaginations: How Narratives of Faith Are Shaping Today’s World, ed. James Walter
(Gingko Library, 2018), 37.
22 Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabī, 218.
23 “We will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it
becomes clear to them that He is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is a
Witness over all things?”
24 “[He is] Lord of the two sunrises and Lord of the two sunsets”.
25 “He is the Lord of the east and the west. There is no god worthy of worship except
Him, so take Him alone as a Trustee.”
26 “He is the Lord of the east and west, and everything in between, if only you had
any sense.”
27 “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. His light is like a niche in which
there is a lamp, the lamp is in a crystal, the crystal is like a shining star, lit from the
oil of a blessed olive tree, located neither to the east nor the west, whose oil would
almost glow, even without being touched by fire. Light upon light! Allah guides
whomever He wills to His Light. And Allah sets forth parables for humanity. For
Allah has perfect knowledge of all things.”
28 FM 2, Ch. 8 “on the Inner Knowing of the Reality of the ‘Vast Earth’ that was Created
From the Remnants of Adam’s Clay.”
29 Corbin, Creative Imagination, 135.
30 Notably, this reference to their conversation (about experiences not otherwise mentioned
in surviving stories of this famous early Egyptian Sufi teacher) suggests
something that Ibn ʿArabī might have learned in another personal encounter with
Dhu’l Nūn in the barzakh of the afterlife, since he often mentions in multiple works
his personal discussions with a number of well-known (but long-deceased) spiritual
figures in the next world. Dhū’l Nūn’s dates are 796-859 CE, or almost four centuries
before Ibn ʿArabī.
31 FM 4, 127.
32 FM 2, 128.7-11.
33 Al-ʿulamā’ bi’llāh: this is one of Ibn ʿArabī’s favorite terms for designating the
highest spiritual ranks of the “true spiritual knowers,” the ʿārifūn.
34 FM 1, 127 (ch. 8) and following.
35 See James Winston Morris, “Life Is But a Dream”: Creation as Divine Cinema and
the Shadow-Theater of Existence, From Plato to Ibn ‘Arabī,” El Azufre Rojo: Revista
de Estudios Sobre Ibn ‘Arabī 2 (n.d.): 30–48.
36 FM 1, 128 (beginning line 11) to 129.
37 FM 1, 127. 20-23.
38 Sheikh, “Embracing the Barzakh,” 28.
39 Nazeer El-Azma, “Some Notes on the Impact of the Story of the Mi’raj on Sufi
Literature,” The Muslim World 63, no. 2 (1973): 93–104:94.
40 I use Herlihy’s terminology of “soul instinct,” which is an inner eye of the heart
accessing key existential and spiritual matters. See John Herlihy, Borderlands of the
Spirit: Reflections on a Sacred Science of Mind (World Wisdom, 2005). 74-75.
41 The most personal and detailed account of Ibn ‘Arabī’s own spiritual journey in its
earliest form is considered to be his highly symbolic account in his youthful book
Kitāb al-Isrā’ ilā al-Maqām al-Asrā’ (“The Book of the Night-Journey to the Farthest
Station”).
42 See the opening sections of James Winston Morris, “The Spiritual Ascension: Ibn
ʿArabī and the Miʿrāj Part I,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 107, no. 4
(1987): 629–52.
43 Frederick S. Colby, “The Subtleties of the Ascension: Al-Sulamī on the Mi’rāj of the
Prophet Muhammad,” Studia Islamica, no. 94 (2002): 167–83.
44 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrine (Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1964), 72. Ibn ‘Arabī echoes earlier philosophers
and Sufis, such as Ikhwān al-Safā’, regarding the cosmic hierarchy of existents and
the special position of plants. In that context, “al-nabāt” refers to that dimension
of the world (or “the Kingdom, al-mulk”) that is considered to be the source of the
potential for growth and development.
45 FM 3, 139, lines 11-14. This and the other passages below are taken from the FM,
chapter 336.
46 The specific verse alluded to here is at 71:17; but it presupposes the larger context
of verses 71:14-20, part of Noah’s address to his people.
47 See the translation of this key passage from the end of this Faṣṣ that is included at
the end of this section below, where Ibn ‘Arabī includes his own experience of this
state of pure “animality.”
48 FM 2, 586. Ch. 267, “On inner knowing of the soul....”
49 FM 3, 137. ch. 366.
50 J.H Philpot, The Sacred Tree, or the Tree in Religion and Myth (NY, Dover Publications,
2004).
51 Noble Ross Reat, “The Tree Symbol in Islam,” http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.
com/ public/articles/the_tree_symbol_in_islam-by_noble_ross_reat.
aspx#_ftn58.
52 Here one might also note that one of the most popular and widely read early
summaries of Ibn ʿArabī’s central metaphysical teachings was entitled the “Tree of
Existence” (Shajarat al-Kawn).
53 For example, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Life and Thought (ABC International
Group, Inc., 2001), 200-206.
54 A.M. Schwencke, Globalized Eco-Islam A Survey of Global Islamic Environmentalism
(Draft Version) (Leiden Institute for Religious Studies (LIRS), Leiden University,
2012),11.
55 In Goethe’s natural philosophy, the adaptability of the transplanted shoot of a plant,
the fact that a broken-off part can reattach itself, and from that point of adaptation
take up further stages of metamorphosis: “[A] new rhizome may form in the heart
of a tree, the hollow of a root, the crook of a branch.” Cited in Elaine P Miller, The
Vegetative Soul: From Philosophy of Nature to Subjectivity in the Feminine (SUNY
Press, 2002), 186.
56 See an overview of this terminology in Atif Khalil, “Humility in Islamic Contemplative
Ethics,” Journal of Islamic Ethics (Leiden, The Netherlands) 4, nos. 1–2 (2020): 223–52.
57 This lifecycle of paddy rice is known in Southeast Asian philosophy as Ilmu Padi, or
“the “knowing of the paddy-plant.” It refers to a person’s maturity, self-realization,
and spiritual attainments, symbolized by the growing nature and ripening of the
paddy plant. In Indonesian, a proverb says “seperti padi, semakin berisi, semakin
merunduk”. Which translates to: “be like the rice stalk: as it is laden with ripening
grains, it bows down.”
58 In full, that title of chapter 366 is: “Concerning inner knowing of the waystation
(manzil) of the plants’ pledging allegiance to that spiritual Pole (Quṭb) who is the
‘Master of the Moment’ in every age, and this is from the Presence of Muhammad.”
This chapter within the larger Futūḥāt Section concerning the Spiritual Waystations
(faṣl al-manāzil) corresponds to Sura 48 (al-Fatḥ), where verses 10 and 18 both refer
to the famous “swearing allegiance” (mubāyaʿa) to Muhammad by his followers
at Hudaybiyya, “underneath the Tree,” as the Qur’an describes that key event. The closing verse 48:29 refers specifically to the distinctive signs of the people of true faith, concluding with the spiritual plant imagery that runs through most of this chapter: “That is their likeness in the Torah and their likeness in the Gospel—like the sown seed that brings forth its shoot, and strengthens it; then it becomes strong, so it rises up on its stalk, pleasing the sowers....”
59 Ibn ʻArabī, The Alchemy of Human Happiness, trans. Stephen Hirtenstein (Anqa Publishing, 2017), 58-59, footnote 48. The text translated and annotated in that volume is of FM, Ch.167.
60 Alchemy, 56.
61 FM II, 295.
62 This sense of the sh-j-r Arabic root as referring to disagreement and opposing qualities is emphasized in a number of Qur’anic verses, especially referring to the forbidden Tree in Eden: “Don’t you two (Adam and Eve) approach this tree, lest you become among the wrongdoers!” (2:35).
63 FM 3, 137.
64 FM 3, 137. Line 26
65 FM 3, 137. Line 25-28.
66 Hugh Talat Halman, Where Two Seas Meet: The Qur’anic Story of al-Khidr and Moses in Sufi Commentaries as a Model of Spiritual Guidance (Fons Vitae, 2013).
67 Sometimes a shaykh knows how to reconstitute a student’s situation by imaginatively transforming an apparently strictly legal solution into a more personal, negotiated solution. For an example of this, see Andi Herawati and Andi Rachmawati Syarif, “Religion and Creative Imagination: Religious Representation in I.B. Singer’s In My Father’s Court and The Shadow-Theater (Wayang) In Indonesia,” Prajñā Vihāra 20, no. 2 (2019): 37.
68 FM 3, 140 and following.
69 FḤ, 186-187. The selections quoted below here are from the very end of the Fass of Ilyās (Idris). At the beginning of this same chapter (pp. 181-182), Ibn ʿArabī already carefully outlines the metaphysical importance of this complete realization of both the purely intelligible sources of manifest existence, together with the realized awareness in this material world of the essential role of human “imaginations” (awhām, here used in the sense of khayāl) in order to fully perceive the significance of all those earthly forms of the divine creation.
70 The allusion is to verses 19:56-57, “…We raised him [Idrīs] up to a High Station.”
71 This later sending back to earth of Idrīs, who was understood first as an early prophet between Adam and Noah, was often identified with the later prophetic figure called Ilyās/Elias (6:85; 37:123-13). Hence Ibn ʿArabī opens this chapter 22 by saying: “Ilyās is Idrīs.”
Article Sidebar
Published
Mar 27, 2026
Article Details
How to Cite
Herawati, A. (2026). “The Grove of Imagination”: Re-reading Ibn ‘Arabī’s Barzakh as a Spiritual Ecology. American Journal of Islam and Society, 43(1-2), 66–93. https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v43i1-2.3974
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
When an article is accepted for publication, copyrights of the publication are transferred from the author to the Journal and reserved for the Publisher. Permission will be required from the publisher for any work for which the author does not hold copyright and for any substantial extracts from work by other authors. The copyright holder giving permission may instruct the author on the form of acknowledgment to be followed. Alternatively, we recommend following the style: “Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year]”.
No commercial reproduction is allowed without the express permission of the publisher.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
© The International Institute of Islamic Thought
